What surprising things have you learned about yourself as you write? I always had the notion that dialogue is very difficult and that I'd never be good at it, since I'm shy in real life. But as I wrote today, I realized nearly the entire story is dialogue, and that I actually enjoy that part of it far more than the exposition. What about you guys?
Every once in a while, in the midst of pages upon pages of boredom, something clever emerges and I am indeed very surprised. Beyond that, the only thing that surprises me is the way characters react to particular situations.
i've been writing my story for over a year, and sometimes when i go back to read some of my earlier chapters, i'm in awe of some of my writing. "I wrote that? that's... that's pretty amazing!" it's a great confidence booster
A funny thing I discovered is that if given the opportunity I tend to write the exact same thing twice. When I was recently editing a piece of work, I immediately decided to add some description only to find that I'd already included the exact same description, word for word, in the next paragraph.
I've learnt how much I appreciate the time I have to myself when I actually can write. Its rare, and I LOVE it. xxx
I love how i can write something and actually think its decent, only to read it a month later, comparing it to my more recent writing and feel disgusted with it.
I'm also a shy person, but I do write dialogue a lot, and I am surprised how specific and detailed I make it. I don't believe I'm good at it, but I go off on like dialogue tangents that eventually get away from the main idea of what the dialogue began with.
I'm surprised that I can actually write, when I never paid much attention to school and hadn't attempted anything even approaching fiction until early last year. I'm surprised when plotlines come together nicely. I'm suprised that the ideas always come, sometimes it takes a while, but they never let me down. In general, I'm quite surprised!
i concur. This happens way too often for me but every blue moon i stumble upon something that makes me say, "Wow, you're a fricking genius!" but it happens very rarely.
Sometimes, when I am sitting there thoroughly engrossed in what I am typing, I stop, look at the half filled page, and am amazed that I am creating something out of nothing. It's like, there's this blank page just sitting there in front of me waiting for me to mold it and craft it into something wonderful. Most times those pages get filed away under Crap, but every now and then, when I know I am really on to something, it feels like those blank pages are just calling me to fill them. I am pleasantly surprised when I read something I wrote a while back and I can't believe I wrote it...cause it good! I was surprised when my characters started talking back to me... Or maybe those are just normal voices in my head. lol
This. Some of what I wrote, whilst understandable, is pants compared to what I can churn out now without really thinking. Especially description
I just surprised myself. I have been unable to write for a while, but i'm listening to certain music, and glancing at a certain picture, and within the past hour, or, however long, during which time i should be asleep by now, I have written over 600 words! This is amazing for me at the point in time. How? Prompts! I'm using the random prompts for simple topic in writer's cafe and i've writen short scenes of prose for different stages of the story i'm currently developing. I'm more pleased with each one after the other. The first was just anything, the second included something I surprised myself with, just a little detail about the face, and the third is a scene i never contemplated, and nearly didn't write because i hesitated to think of anything (the prompt was water) but have created a scene i definitely aim to use in the final product. It really touched me, and the image i created is sticking with me. I'm so pleased! Haha. I saw this thread before but hadnt been surprised before xD
"I go off on like dialogue tangents..." - Lionslicer XD Exactly! Like, after three pages I'm like, "Wait, what was the scene about?" It's kind of cool though when the dialogue just flows like that. "Datura, perhaps you should give screenwriting a shot, since you enjoy writing dialog." -Architectus I've considered it, but I'm kinda a control freak. ' "I stop, look at the half filled page, and am amazed that I am creating something out of nothing." -bluebell80 Agreed. This is absolutely one of the coolest things about writing.
I am speechless and almost reduced to tears when I type away furiously at the keyboard for hours, changing this and changing that, writing this and writing that and then hours later I look up..... and all I've go to show for it is a lame couple of hunderd words that need a lot of work. Sigh.
Well, my book-to-be surprised me in a lot of aspects. For one, I'd never finished a story this long before. Hell, I hardly ever finish my stories at all!
I'm writing a story that consists only of dialogue between two people, letting the reader imagine what's going on through their words, and it's, it's, it's good. It's both fun to read and fun to write. Maybe I'll do one that's only exposition and see if I can pull off the same kind of stunt. Who knows, if I practice hard enough on both of them seperately maybe I'll be able to finally put them together in a natural way.
